


More than Black and White

by Agnidivya



Series: White Knights [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Coming of Age, Death, Gen, Gods and Monsters, and everything in between, the afterlife
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-11-30 18:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11469501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agnidivya/pseuds/Agnidivya
Summary: Duality has always been an aspect they all lived with.But the world exists in more than twos.So, what is the truth?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. I know a lot of people out there are going to kill me for the long hiatus. However, in my defence, I ended up dealing with a job change, getting married to an asshole who seemed sweet at the time, and then raising a beautiful baby daughter. A lot can happen in just four years.
> 
> Anyway, I hate how Bleach ended. As I mentioned before, I write fanfiction about works I don’t really care about to see if there is a scope for improvement or there are any tropes that require deconstruction. Bleach had the potential to be a unique story on par with the Lord of the Rings saga. But Tite Kubo was busy making his characters look like supermodels rather than developing their lives. So, why don’t I give it a try?
> 
> I may create a separate section about my essays (read: rants) about all the positive and negative aspects of story-telling used by Kubo or by other authors that could be applied to Kubo’s work. Take a look at it if you are interested. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Fingers adorned with terribly long, perfectly manicured fingernails pressed down on the ebony and ivory keys. Lights and music notes played in synchronisation as sigils after sigils appeared on the virtual screen above. Yellow eyes regarded them with morbid curiosity.

Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri studied the data collected and complied by his division that was currently streaming before him. There were anomalies in the boundaries of the spiritual planes. The Dangai that bordered the worlds had shown stress fractures at certain points.

He scanned the readings again. The punctures and fractures had been repaired repeatedly by the recreated Kōtotsu, but they kept reappearing periodically in the same spots over and over again.

Even this was not an unusual event. Balancing forces always placed pressure on the time streams that made up the Dangai. They were subjected to more incredible stresses when spiritual beings of power equal or greater than Shinigami lieutenants travelled through between planes.

No, what stumped him were the readings that were taken the moment the fractures were repaired.

There seemed to be time currents that managed to off-shoot from the 2,000 stacked layers. This too could be considered a natural phenomenon as all parameters were infinite and only quantified for the sake of human understanding. There were always in-between values like millimetres in-between centimetres, and micrometres in-between millimetres.

However, these offshoots were quantified in very regular intervals that suggested tampering by sentient force than a natural occurring event. There were time stream offshoots in key fractions between the quantified stacks.

His fingers tapped the keys lightly as his mind raced through calculations and possible causes.

The original Kōtotsu had been created when the boundary had been first erected to separate the spiritual planes. There had been many more paths connecting the planes until too many trespasses had been the cause of the Dangai’s creation. The creation of the Dangai had taken over five centuries and the plans had been passed to several hands. The original architect was unknown. The Kōtotsu had been created for the first section of the Dangai, but it was simple in structure until it had evolved several times until it had acquired its current form. Perhaps there had been other features in the original Kōtotsu that had been lost to time.

*****

Uryū struggled to sleep. He knew that. Just like he knew that his son also had exceptional sensory perception.

Kurosaki had attributed it to the Sensory Processing Disorder and had all but commanded Ryūken to seek help. And had it been anyone other than his son, Ryūken would have done it far before Kurosaki even noticed.

However, there was a reason Souken had refused to accept the Wandenreich and their crusade against Soul Society.

Kanae had been by Ryūken’s side when he understood the full expanse of the spiritual planes. Her grounding presence had kept him from losing himself and that was when he realised the full expanse of the spiritual planes.

Kanae had always known but had never spoken a word to her vengeance-driven brethren, for fear of them trying to exploit it.

And with good reason.

The world is far too big and he was a fool for not seeing it sooner. And the throne of Soul Society was the only thing keeping the balance.

Humans cannot survive in anarchy.

*****

Rukia had been irritated lately. He noticed her annoyance at things that hadn’t bothered her before. Whether it was something as simple as the smell of cherry blossoms, or something as truly annoying as the third seats of her division, she usually held herself with grace or expressed annoyance with subtle physical abuse.

At first, he thought it was the stress of her training. After all, she kept pushing herself every day, trying to understand her power and her limits.

Then he considered if it was the stress of her rank, but he knows how efficient she was in her work.

He then remembered that Rukia had walked out of the room, cold fury radiating from her, whenever anyone implied her ice Zanpakutō as the second strongest. He decided to speak with her. He knew she was training hard and that she was stronger. Yet, there was a huge gap of power between her and Hitsugaya. It would not do to get carried away.

Arrogance was not the same as pride.

‘Sode no Shirayuki is not a Zanpakutō of ice’, Rukia all but snapped at him when he did get a chance to speak to her at dinner, ‘She is far **more**.’

*****

She was always moving and she always stood still. She was the same and ever changing. She had several faces but a single facet. She was one, she was many. She was the end, the beginning.

 And she was furious.

She hadn’t minded that horde, though they weren’t as efficient as she wished. They had been better than the singular fools trying to station themselves on her throne. Yet now, that horde had failed spectacularly.

She missed the days of kinder spirits. Those that understood their duty and performed it to the best of their ability. They were stern and benevolent, and exercised judgement.

Now, her favoured ones had been replaced by pompous fools who were deluded by the superficial value of their wealth. Her slender hand reached for the sleeping deity. He had been one of her favourites – loyal and wise, yet humble enough to seek counsel. Her entirety ached at the sorrow he must have felt.

Unfortunately, she could not bring him back. Not without a price.

Everything in the universe had a price.

Perhaps it was time to remind the so-called greater beings of their insignificance.

*****

Vasto-lorde.

The station that had been ever elusive to him. The pedestal he sought to stand on. The goal that was within his grasp but forever out of his reach.

There was something there, something he could touch, but just barely.

There were only a handful of Vasto-lorde in existence. Now, there was only one in that class left.

Devouring Hollows stronger than him hadn’t helped him reach it. He could not understand.

Vasto-lorde were a level above all Hollows. They did now want for anything, they did not give-in to the crippling despair and madness of being separated from their plane of existence. They still felt all the negative emotions all Hollows felt. Yet, they were strong enough to never give in.

He spied the woman from a distance. He was not deluded enough to believe she did not know he was skulking in the shadows. Bloodlust, madness, despair, and pain did not cling to her. There were a mild aftertaste in his mouth, while every other being on this wretched plane reeked of them.

That was the end-goal for him – to shake off the taint that covered him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As mentioned in the prologue, I have introduced you to the five major players. Four protagonists and one all-powerful antagonist.
> 
> This is a story-telling technique that is going to revolve around these five characters and their interactions with the world. The larger, more boring cast (including the canon protagonist) will be developed through interaction with these chosen characters. There will be no dedicated subplots for their sake or extended sob stories… I mean back stories.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was snowing. The full moon shone in the night sky. The wind whistled through the leaf-less sleeping trees that bordered the empty playground. The little rock slide, the wooden swings hanging from the branches of slumbering trees with twisted rope, and the multitude of poles and balls scattered around were all covered in a layer virgin snow a foot thick. The moonlight danced of the pure white surface.

It was a beautiful sight, poignant in its loneliness.

The snowfall grew suddenly heavier.  The wind blew harder. The moon was covered by the clouds. And everything turned cold.

She wrapped her arms around herself in a vain attempt to keep warm. Funny, she had always been able to tolerate the cold better than anyone she knew.

There was a screech, a sharp piercing screech that hurt her ears, forcing her to clamp her hands on them.

The snowfall turned into a blizzard now. The winds were howling and tossing her about like a ragdoll. She fought to get back to her feet and struggled to remain upright. When she did, she saw the outline of a figure standing a little ways before her. The figure was small, far smaller than her.

She squinted her eyes and tried to see who it was before giving up and deciding to move closer. It was hard work placing one foot before the other. Her feet sank into the deep snow and were numb by the time she pulled them up. But that did not stop her from making her way to the little person.

It took her a while, whether minutes or hours, she did not know. When she reached that person, she realised it was a child, a girl. She just knew it was a girl. The girl had short ebony hair that would have brushed her shoulders had it not been blown about by the wind. She was dressed in a lavender yukata with larger dark violet spots all over it and a maroon obi. Her face was covered by a pure white porcelain rabbit mask. But what truly surprised her was that the child was bare-footed even in the cold snow.

'Aren’t you cold?’ she asked the child, her own state of misery temporarily forgotten.

The child shook her head no.

'Are you lost?’

The girl nodded an affirmative.

'Come here. Let me help you’, she reached out to the little girl. But when her hand was just an inch from the girl’s body, the frozen ground beneath her cracked and broke apart. She fell through and found herself weightless, yet descending lower.

Water, she realised, freezing cold water. She had fallen into a frozen lake.

She looked up and saw the hole she fell through close up, the water freezing the opening shut in seconds and the cracks in the ice slowly fading away.

Horrified, she swam up. Her hand touched the cold, glassy surface of the frozen lake and felt how thick and solid it was. Panic gripped her being and she began to hit the ice in desperation. She saw the blurry outline of the child kneeling and doing the same from the other side.

Her lungs burned and her muscles ached. Her fingers froze and her legs went numb. She was losing strength quickly. She pounded the ice a few more times. Her mouth opened involuntarily. A few precious air bubbles escaped and drifted up before hitting the ice. They were trapped just like her.

Finally, her body succumbed to the water and the cold, and she sank…

*****

Her eyes snapped open and she was gasping, desperately trying to force air into her lungs. She could still feel the water lodged in her throat and the ice prickling her skin.

It took her a while to compose herself. When she did, she found herself in her room. A pleasantly cool breeze blew in from the half-open shoji doors.

Sighing, she sat up in her futon and ran her hands through her dark hair. Her eyes then landed on her zanpakutou resting on her katanakake.

_What are you trying to tell me, Sode no Shirayuki?_

*****

He slept. He slept.

And he remembered.

He had been assaulted and betrayed. He had been pulled under. His brother had come to rescue him, to avenge him. His brother fought for over six years and had found him. But could not save him.

His big brother.

The trickster.

The wisest man he had known.

One of the wisest to exist.

He had tried to help, done the best he could, gave him the tools he needed.

And they both flourished and thrived.

Until they fell.

He was born anew, but his beloved brother faded. Because **she** did not want anyone stopping her, and she knew his brother could.

So now he slept on and remembered.

*****

'You were not the only one to survive, but you were the only one to retain your powers as you did’, the man told him. ‘Choose wisely, Uryū. This is your legacy and your duty.’

The man then disappeared with the same grandeur he had appeared with – a swirl of a white cape and a distortion in the air. Uryū resisted the urge to snort. While he did understand the impact of dramatics and theatricality, this was pushing it even for him.

Yet, he thought back on the words he had been told, words that were so at odds with the fragments of memory he had retained.

_Activating it will be fatal for him. Let me do it. I can heal him. He will survive and no one will guess how or why._

His survival was a fact that Haschwalth took great pleasure in reminding, even if the idiot did not understand it himself. Uryū was an anomaly in the Quincy bloodline, someone the Almighty cannot see and someone who keeps surviving no matter the odds.

He needed answers and the person who could give it to him would not. Perhaps it was time for a little adventuring.

*****

Tyres squealed the protest as the car skid to a stop in the driveway. Ishida Ryūken returned home as fast as he could when he sensed the presence in the town. He would not let Kanae’s sacrifice be in vain.

He always knew that his reckless son would soon find himself in over his head. He also knew that Uryū’s pride would not accept anything less than vengeance. Just ask the current captain of the 12th division of the Gotei 13. He knew the boy would do something stupid like join those narrow-minded, neo-Nazi wannabes in their bloody crusade against the balancers of the universe because their “God”, and he used the term very loosely, commanded it of them, just so he could get vengeance for his mother. He knew very well that the boy would be smart enough to figure out his mother’s killer with just a few sloppily cryptic sentences but still be and idiot because of the hero complex he was infected with due to close proximity to that Kurosaki brat.

And so he forgot all grace and stoicism that had been drilled into him, because this was his son, and barged into his mansion.

And found it devoid of any presence.

Cursing himself, he marched up to Uryū’s room and tore the door open. He scanned the room for oddities and found a note on the table. He picked it up and read it.

And blinked.

_What?_

He read the note again.

This was… actually a lot better than what he had predicted. When did Uryū get emotionally mature? Better yet, when did he develop common sense?

*****

'What do you want?’

Grimmjow nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard that voice, but he would be damned before he let her see him weak. He turned around to address the “Queen” of Hueco Mundo.

'Nothing from you’, he snarled.

He discreetly searched for her trio of bickering Fracción. They were nowhere in sight.

Tier Harribel’s emerald eyes hardened when she caught his enquiring gaze. ‘Wander where you wish on these sands’, she stated sternly, ‘Do as you wish but comply with the advice given. Do not stray from your path Sexta.’ Her eyes narrowed in distrust, ‘And do not approach my subordinates.’

With a flourish, Harribel disappeared from sight. Grimmjow spat on the ground where she had stood in retaliation.

*****

Green eyes scanned the dark recesses of the borderlands. Behind her, the members of her squad milled about taking samples and readings wherever and whenever required. The Dangai was bigger in this section. She could feel the distortion in her mind. It felt like standing in a room with walls closed in to make it look smaller than it actually was.

She glanced back to see her father and captain ordering people around. And started when he paused.

The entire squad seemed to stop with him.

'Well, now’, he said sardonically, ‘I guess it was too much to ask for some free time to pull some of my works from hiatus. Oh, well.’

 He then turned around and strode out, barking orders for his subordinates to follow. Nemu fell in line dutifully behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I considered combining this with the prologue, but then realized that this was where the journey actually begin. Also note that I tend to use the UK English spellings in my works.
> 
> Writing Ishida Sr. is hard. That asshole is a bad parent, not because he does not care about his son, but because he is too emotionally constipated and a middle-aged emo to boot. Geez, I have more fun working on his son’s character! Ishida Jr. is far more adorable than he has any right to be.
> 
> Bonus points and cyber cookies if you have a vague idea of the mythology I used here.


End file.
